Mrs. Pall looked too cool to be a murderer or to have anything to do with one. That was Regalia’s first impression. His first impressions were often wrong.
With her greying short hair and glasses, her hooked nose and nifty dress sense (not overdone but sufficiently stylish to turn a few discerning heads), she could have passed for a lecturer or a professor. But apparently, as Regalia found out, she was a practicing nun with an obscure Christian denomination from the north of India.
Are there obscure Christian denominations to be found in Northern India? Regalia wondered.
Apparently, there were, and Mrs. Pall had been a member of the faith since she got married, more than twenty years earlier.
‘Is there a Mr Pall?’
‘Probably. I can imagine there’s plenty of Mr. Pall’s running around,’ she replied, ‘but the one married to me passed away in 1999.’
‘Natural causes?’
‘Slipped and fell.’
Regalia’s right eye twitched and his eyebrows rose, beckoning an answer from the woman seated before him.
‘Well at least he wasn’t forked to death.’ Regalia said. ‘The medical people had to give him relaxants to calm him down. He still looks petrified of you. ‘
‘In the bathroom. That’s one of the leading causes of death among folks of a certain age group.’
‘Well at least he wasn’t forked to death.’ Regalia couldn’t resist the dig, allowing a thin, satisfied smile to appear on his handsome face.
Mrs. Pall remained cool.
‘I’d have preferred something more substantial as an instrument.’
‘Why did you launch yourself at that young fellow in there? The medical people had to give him relaxants to calm him down. He still looks petrified.’
‘Never seen him before in my life.’
‘So why the attempted assault?’
‘I thought he was the one who murdered the bride and groom.’
‘How and when?’
‘He had been circling the wedding cake too many times. It seems that he was interested in more than the decorations.’
‘You were watching for suspicious characters at a wedding? That’s not one of the responsibilities of your profession, is it?’
‘All nuns are trained to observe.’
Regalia waited.
‘You don’t want to ask what for?’
‘I won’t but please go ahead.’
‘We observe people. By the nature of our profession, we spend less time talking or thinking of ourselves and more observing those around us.’
‘Looking for murderers?’
‘No, we look at the souls around us and learn to identify the needy ones. The ones in pain or who carry excessive burdens.’
‘This chap you pounced on – did he look like he was carrying a burden?’
‘No, Inspector. I’d observed him earlier because he seemed to linger too long around the wedding cake, did not mingle with anyone else and appeared a little furtive. When the screaming started -‘
‘When the bride and groom took bites of the cake, the lights went out and shots rang out – this I was told was what had happened. Would you agree?’
‘Just about. He was running towards the gunshots when the lights came on. Everybody else was going in the opposite direction.’
‘Everybody except you.’
‘I’m a nun.’
Regalia raised his eyebrows, an unspoken ‘So?’
‘We are ready to surrender ourselves to the Lord at any moment. Death does not frighten me,’ she allowed for a pause, where usually any listener would comment on death or the Lord. Regalia didn’t and she continued, ‘So I remained still and witnessed the aberration.’
‘And you chased him, the aberration.’
‘I pursued him, and he chose to climb onto the dining table in order to get away. I followed and he stumbled.’
‘The fork?’
‘I needed protection in some form. I didn’t know if he was armed. When I’d got him pinned on the table, I waited for help to arrive.’
‘Yes, I was on the scene by then and saw your performance,’ Mrs. Pall gave him a look that you’d not expect from a nun. He continued, with some satisfaction,
‘I saw that it was quite an effort to get you off the table and away. Why such passion for pinning down a stranger, if the cavalry had arrived to take over the task?
Mrs. Pall, credit to her, seemed to be handling the needless, needling questions with the patience of -I’ll say it – a nun. She allowed herself a grin.
‘Inspector, I was not about to let a potential murderer get away due to negligence on my part.’
‘What happened to love thy enemy and all that?’
‘Inspector Regalia – if that’s your real name – you seem to be a little negative about faith, particularly the Christian one. You probably are an agnostic? No. Perhaps you were Christian too and the experiences in your life, maybe during your childhood, had made you what you are today. A skeptic. Perhaps possessing an ever-present cynicism when it comes to Christianity. Perhaps you have the same disdain for all religions.’
Regalia looked at Mrs. Pall as if she’d just said the silliest thing he’d heard in his entire professional career. So he asked his question,
‘Are you related to either of the deceased?’
That’s when Mrs. Pall’s smile faded.
Regalia leaned back and stood up. He didn’t need to hear anything more. The interview was over. He left the room with a spring in his step.
To be continued….
photo from unsplash.com by Debby Hudson